Background

You've found the Borderlands Science arcade machine. If you want to take a break from your space-faring, face-shooting escapades, you could always plug it in and start playing.

In-game, this arcade machine has been made by Patricia Tannis in order to prove she's the smartest person in the universe. It is actually a puzzle game that helps biology researchers to map the DNA of the gut microbiota^[1],^[2]. After starting the game, a visual explanation on what the whole program is appears.

Walkthrough

Player has to push blocks up in a given number of moves, and match them with the lines that have the same faces. It is not needed (and sometimes not possible) to match all of the blocks to win.

After playing the game, the mission ends, but you can keep playing to earn points.

Completion

Player can earn Booster Points, that can be exchanged with in-game Boosters. All duration are counted as real-time.

Notes

• Borderlands Science! was developed in conjunction with McGill University, Massively Multiplayer Online Science, and The Microsetta Initiative. It was a major success: roughly 4.5 million of players have helped trace the evolutionary relationships of more than a million different kinds of bacteria^[3].
• The game is voiced by American actress, neuroscientist and author Mayim Bialik, known for her roles in The Big Bang Theory and Blossom.

Trailer

References